


Monkey Business

by ladyc2



Category: KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 11:58:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3609285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyc2/pseuds/ladyc2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kame works for a toy company and there is something vaguely familiar about the toy line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monkey Business

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the KameDa fic exchange (kamedalove.livejournal.com)

_"Ground Floor"_

Kame pushed himself off the wall of the elevator, blinking to dispel the blurriness in his vision as he disembarked. If the ride had gone on much longer he might have actually fallen asleep. His whole body felt drained - the long hours were taking their toll. Still, he couldn't help the small smile that tugged at his lips as he shuffled out the doors; there was _one_ perk to working late.

Even amongst the security staff populating the lobby, Ueda stood out, his spiked blond hair in contrast to the neat and tidy standard haircuts of his fellow staff members. The top two buttons of his uniform were open, also probably against protocol, though no-one seemed willing to call him on it. He'd only been working security for a few weeks, but it was clear to him why Ueda had passed the interviews despite his irreverence and lack of attention to uniform rules - even in a casual stance he radiated an aura of controlled menace.

"Kamenashi-san," The head security guard greeted, "working late again?"

Kame nodded as he approached the desk. "The new product line is coming out in a few days - its non-stop."

"That explains why you look like hell," Ueda's voice cut into the conversation, causing the other guard to look at him in astonishment, before moving away, shaking his head. The fact that Kame and Ueda were known to be friends was probably the only thing keeping him from reprimanding Ueda. Kame wasn't feeling quite so charitable and he frowned at Ueda's blunt tone as he swiped his card, officially clocking off for the night. Security would still have to buzz him out, maybe they'd even walk him to the door – security always got ridiculously tight at times like these. 

"Go home and get some sleep." 

It sounded more like an order to a naughty toddler trying to stay up past bedtime. Kame bristled but he knew he'd never win an argument – he was overworked, overtired and probably did look like hell. Double checking the other guard was out of hearing range, Kame went for a different tactic; he pouted (Ueda was always weak for that).

"But I miss you, and working late means I get to see you."

"I'd rather you got some sleep."

"It would be better if you were there." There was more truth to that statement than Kame was willing to admit.

"If I was there, sleep's the last thing we'd be doing," Ueda's grin was salacious, "I don't think your eye bags could take it." 

Kame huffed. 

"As if I'll be sleeping anyway," he muttered. It was true, despite his drowsiness in the elevator he knew that once he lay down to actually try and sleep his mind would kick into overdrive and endlessly overturn the things that still needed to be done.

"You're not sleeping properly?" The banter was suddenly gone out of Ueda's voice. He turned briefly to the head guard and called out, "I'm taking my break early." 

As soon as he got a nod of acknowledgement he was around the counter and grabbing Kame's wrist, yanking him away from the desk, but _not_ towards the doors that led out of the building.

Kame followed along behind Ueda quietly. Once he'd made sure Kame wasn't going to stubbornly hold his ground Ueda had dropped his wrist, leading Kame down a small narrow corridor. Kame had never been down here before, but the blank walls didn't hold much interest and Kame found his mind wandering back to his work – he probably should have made one more call to manufacturing before he left for the night; to check if they'd sorted the problem with the stitching yet. They didn't have much time left – the deadline loomed large like a monster about to swallow him whole. 

The thoughts flew out of his head as he suddenly found himself being pushed into the wall, Ueda's lips pressing against his own. Kame gave in instantly to the taste, to the feel of his boyfriend pressed up against him. It was only when Ueda pulled away that Kame remembered where they were.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. 

Ueda's grin was smug. 

"It's a little known fact that there is a blind spot in the camera network," he pointed up and Kame followed his finger to a camera pointing away from them, "right here". When Kame's gaze returned to his own he added, "I was just taking advantage."

Kame wanted to kick to him. 

"I'm surprised they let that through." 

Ueda shrugged turning and continuing along the corridor. "This corridor only leads to the security guard's break room and all the guards know about it."

"It's still risky," Kame grumbled. 

When they got to the break room Ueda made Kame sit down before wandering over to the kitchen bench to make drinks. A few minutes later he came back, placing a mug down in front of Kame. It smelled like green tea. Flipping his chair around, he straddled it.

"Drink up," Ueda commanded, "It'll help you sleep."

"I kind of need to stay awake to get home." Kame pointed out.

"I'll call you a taxi."

"This job's giving you a power trip isn't it?"

Ueda just laughed. 

“It's your fault if it is – you got me this job.”

Kame grinned back before letting out a sigh, "I just wish you weren't stuck on night shift so often." He missed his boyfriend. Especially now; going home to an empty apartment with nothing to distract him from his thoughts, his worries.

"Joys of being a newbie," Ueda replied, "A few more months and my shifts should start evening out. Besides, the night shift is kind of cool.” 

When Kame didn’t answer he added, "apart from the not being able to see you, of course." 

Maybe he thought Kame would be mad about his admittance, but Kame was happy that Ueda was enjoying his job and not just because he got to see him more often. Ueda wasn't finished though, echoing his thoughts a little as he remarked, 

"Although with the way you've been working lately," he trailed off, his voice not quite hiding the disapproval at Kame's hectic work schedule.

"I told you, the new line hits in a few days," Kame muttered a little defensively. Getting a toy from concept stage to actually being on the shelves was a lot more work than most people probably imagined. And there was extra pressure this time; this time it was his design. Kame had never had one of his idea’s make it from the drawing board to actual manufacture stage before. 

"You'd think we were in weapons manufacturing, the way you all carry on." Ueda was clearly holding back an eye roll of epic proportions. "It's just toys." 

He knew Ueda was teasing, trying to lighten the mood but Kame didn't know how Ueda could take things so lightly. Yes, security had been tightened to an almost fanatical level but there was merit to the approach. Competition between the toy companies was fierce and poaching of ideas, even the toys themselves wasn't uncommon. There was a particularly disastrous case over a toy robot about ten years back which had nearly sent the company bankrupt. Security was a top priority ever since.

Kame wished he could talk about his work (if only to ease his boyfriends worries about his stress levels getting out of control) even apart from the security issue there was another reason Kame was hesitant to divulge.

~

_The meeting had been going on for what seemed like hours now. Glancing up at the clock, Kame repressed a sigh – never mind 'seemed like' – how could the man actually talk about their lack of ideas for so long. He flipped the pen in his hand a few times and resumed doodling on his notebook. His new boyfriend smiled up at him from the page – well it was supposed to be his new boyfriend; he knew his drawing skills were a little lacking; something which he'd been teased about by his friends forever – especially when he'd gotten a job in the toy industry (of course, as Kame was quick to point out, they had professional designers to bring the ideas to life). Not that any of his ideas had been taken up yet._

_"Cuuuute!!!" The lady next to him exclaimed. Normally the smart, button down, sensible type, Kame jumped in surprise on hearing her let out such a girlish cry. He raised his head to find her looking down at his notebook. She grabbed it out of his hands._

_"Is that a monkey? It's adorable."_

_Kame, who didn't want to admit that he wasn't paying attention to the meeting, nor that he was such a horrible drawer, just nodded._

_"Yoshida-san,” she called out, “come look at this. Kamenashi-kun's drawn the cutest design."_

_Yoshida and a few of the others in the meeting came over and studied the notebook. Kame felt a little self-conscious. How would they react if they knew it was drawing of his boyfriend? What if they recognised him? Ueda had, at Kame's recommendation, recently applied for a position on the security staff and been accepted._

_Yoshida smiled down at him, unaware of the thoughts piling up in Kame’s mind._

_"Good work Kamenashi-kun."_

_He returned to his position, Kame's notebook held firmly in his hand as he resumed the meeting, this time with something to work with._

~

Things had spiralled so quickly from there and now he was stuck. How did he explain to his boyfriend that he was the inspiration for the new line? How would Ueda react? Would he react at all? Kame had no idea. His boyfriend could be weirdly prickly at the oddest things and things Kame assumed would rile him often seemed to amuse him instead.

Kame normally liked that about Ueda - it kept their relationship fresh and interesting; unpredictable. But for this, Kame wished he had some clue to how Ueda would react. 

"You're nervous, I can tell,” Ueda said, as if reading his mind. He clapped him on the back, probably in an attempt at reassurance. "With the amount of work you've put into it, it can't possibly fail."

Kame smiled weakly. If only he had that much confidence.

 

_~Two weeks later~_

 

"Cheers!"

Four glasses clinked together in the middle of the table. Ueda brought the beer to his lips and drank deeply. Kazuya's toy had done even better than expected, especially with women – age didn't even seem to matter, old ladies were cooing over the things as much as any six year old girl. Ueda didn't really get it – _what was so great about a damn monkey?_ – But he was proud of Kazuya's success. 

"How does it feel to have a best seller on your hands?" Nakamaru asked. 

"Relieved," Kazuya answered though his grin, and that was another reason for Ueda to be grateful it worked. For all that he sometimes seemed to thrive on the workload; Kazuya had been pushing himself hard, too hard on this project. Plus, maybe now he could spend some time with his boyfriend.

"Oh, speaking of which," Kame added, picking up a bag next to him and handing it to Taguchi to his right.  
Taguchi opened the bag pulling out one of the monkeys.

"Cuuuuute!!!" Taguchi exclaimed. 

"Are you sure that's for your girlfriend and not for you," Ueda teased, laughing at the excited look on Taguchi's face.

Taguchi grinned back. "If they weren't sold out everywhere, I might have gotten one for me too." He gave Kame a pleading look then, like a puppy begging for a bone. Kame shook his head,

"Getting that one was hard enough; they aren't big on free samples."

"Even though it was your idea?" Taguchi pouted.

"Looks kind of familiar," Nakamaru observed as Taguchi turned the toy over in his hands to examine every inch of it. Ueda thought that was a weird statement from his friend – it was a monkey; if you'd seen one, you'd seen them all, in Ueda's opinion. The fact that it was rendered in toy form and was wearing clothes – in this case a bus conductor's uniform - didn't alter that fact.

"Didn't you used to be a bus conductor?" Nakamaru mumbled under his breath, just loud enough that Ueda heard him. Ueda shook his head. He'd done a short stint at an overnight bus company, but that was mostly working in the ticket office; that was in fact how he and Kazuya had met when the latter had missed his bus. 

After initially yelling at Ueda and demanding he call the bus back – to which Ueda had scoffed and told him to get over himself – he'd collapsed onto a nearby bench and sat staring into nothing. Ueda didn't usually feel sorry for other people (he had enough problems of his own), but something about the forlorn expression on the other man's face had gotten to him and before he knew it he was going out of his way to find an alternate travel plan to get the man where he was going with the smallest delay possible. 

He hadn't expected to ever see him again after that, so he was doubly shocked when a couple of weeks later Kame had returned, offering to buy him dinner for his help. They'd been together ever since. 

"I think the boxing one is best," Nakamaru said out loud breaking Ueda out of his thoughts.

Ueda would have probably picked that one as his favourite too – it had been too long since he'd been to the gym. Taguchi shook his head, disagreeing. "I'd definitely want the okonomiyake street vendor one. The little spatula he's holding is super cute.” 

Nakamaru coughed, and Ueda turned his head towards his friend. This made Nakamaru cough even harder. As his gaze swung around the table it caught on Kame who was looking nervous, his tongue darting across his lip and his fingers unconsciously tearing up a napkin. He refused to meet Ueda's eyes.   
Something was going on here, something he wasn't quite getting. 

"What varieties do they come in again?" he asked.

Taguchi started listing them off, "Bus conductor, Boxer, Okonomiyake vendor, Hair dresser, NEET-man, Pilot."

All jobs Ueda had done, or close enough; no wait, he'd never been a pilot - although there was that time he'd dressed up as one for Halloween after Kazuya had expressed a kink for it – that had turned out to be one of the best Halloween's of his life. 

"Um, I think I need the bathroom," Kame said, rising from his chair and leaving the table with an undue amount of haste.

Ueda reached out, grabbing the monkey out of Taguchi's hand and examining it himself. The monkey seemed to stare back at him its dark eyes boring into Ueda's own, its spiky yellow hair and cheeky grin almost mocking him as the pieces of the puzzle slid into place in his mind. He stood suddenly himself, knocking his chair back. He waved the monkey towards Kamenashi's quickly retreating back.

"KAMENASHI!!!"


End file.
